When keratinous substrates such as hair and skin are exposed to environmental conditions, the substrates can lose many of their desirable properties. For example, hair can lose its shine, it can become frizzy or unmanageable, it can lose its color and it can become dry and brittle. Skin can also become dry and rough under low humidity conditions.
One method of maintaining desirable properties on hair and skin is to provide a protective barrier that will serve to seal such desirable benefits on the surface of hair and skin. For example, under low humidity conditions, hair can dry out and dried-out hair tends to be less shiny and more brittle. A protective barrier on the hair will help to keep moisture in the hair allowing it to keep its shine. Such a protective barrier can result in less hair damage, more shine and an overall healthy appearance of the hair.
Conversely, under high humidity conditions, hair tends to absorb water causing it to lose its shape and become unmanageable and unattractive. A protective barrier on the hair will help keep moisture out of the hair under high humidity conditions leading to improved manageability.
Thus, it is desirable to develop products that provide a protective barrier on the surface of hair that will allow the hair to retain moisture under low humidity conditions as well as prevent unwanted moisture from penetrating the hair under high humidity conditions. Such products can also help impart shine to hair and keep the hair shiny and healthy-looking for extended periods of time.
Such a protective barrier can also inhibit the loss of color from the surface of keratinous substrates such as hair. For example, a protective barrier can inhibit color fading in artificially colored hair generally attributed to environmental conditions such as high and low humidity, sunlight or from handling, everyday activities and washing. The protective barrier should preferably be water-resistant and/or transfer-resistant so that the barrier is not easily removed from the keratinous substrate through normal activities. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop products that provide a protective barrier on hair that will seal the color of artificially colored hair and help the hair retain its color for longer periods of time.